What Happens In Vegas
by GrandpaJoeProductionFanfiction
Summary: This is a short story that takes place six years after the end of "All Grown Up!" After a wild night durring a quick vacation in Las Vegas, Tommy and Chuckie wake up to discover that they have made a serious mistake. What did these two long-time friends do the night before in Sin City?
1. The Morning After

It was around seven in the morning in Las Vegas, Nevada; the sun had risen over an hour and a half ago, but the sun had only just gotten so high that the sunlight made it through the windows of the high-rise hotels. In one room on the thirteenth floor of the main building of the neoclassical, high-class _Olympus_ hotel, the young, dark-haired Tommy Pickles lied asleep in bed. He had gone to sleep only a few hours ago, but the sunlight that now hit his face disturbed his deep slumber. Tommy was now only half asleep when he rolled onto his right side in order to not face the sunlight. As he adjusted himself on his right side, he stretched out his left arm for a moment and then put it down straight out to the right side of the bed. To his surprise, Tommy felt the body of a woman in bed next to him. At first, the half-asleep Tommy took this as a good thing and began to spoon his bed partner, running his hands down her firm body. However, the unconscious Tommy soon remembered that he had not brought a date with him to Vegas, nor did he remember picking up a girl the night before.

Once his hands made it all the way down to the woman's legs, he began to feel a holey article of clothing, and the first thing that came into Tommy's mind was that they were fishnet stockings. However, once the woman's hair began to poke him in the face, Tommy had had enough and needed to know what exactly was going on. He slowly peered open his tired, crusty eyes, but once he had a clear view of the woman sleeping next to him, he began to tremble as his mouth dropped wide open. For the next few minutes Tommy stood up in bed, mumbling some unintelligible words of astonishment as he looked down at the blonde woman sleeping next to him, that was until he heard the voice of his long-time friend.

"Tommy!" Screamed Chuckie Finster from another part of the hotel room.

The redhead man came running into the room where Tommy's bed was in, completely naked and screaming, "Tommy, there's someone following me!"

At the first sight of Chuckie's scrawny, pasty body barged into his room, Tommy immediately looked away after spotting his freckled friend's red-haired nether regions, and screamed, "Oh, God! Chuckie, cover yourself!"

Tommy immediately through his bed sheet at Chuckie in order so that he could make a skirt or a toga out of it in order to cover himself, however, once he gave up his cover it revealed that he too was completely undressed. The mass of dark hair was not enough to shield Tommy's manhood from Chuckie's eyes, causing the same kind of discomfort in him he had created for his friend a few seconds ago. Tommy then frantically searched for anything to cover himself, eventually settling for his boxers and shorts which lied on the floor next to his bed. As he put on the articles of clothes he picked up from the floor, Chuckie let out a huge scream and immediately began to run towards Tommy. After dressing his bottom half, the more courageous Tommy got out of bed and got a good view of what was scaring his long-time friend. To his surprise, another woman, a young Asian woman with thick, shoulder-length, dark hair and dark eyes dressed in a blue bodycon dress with a strappy back and a lace-up V-neck, ran into his room, chasing Chuckie.

"Come back, my love, don't be afraid," Called out the young woman to Chuckie, only causing him to coward behind Tommy and scream.

No longer able to tolerate the loud screams coming from the frightened redhead, the blonde woman in Tommy's bed turned over from her side and threw Tommy's pillow at Chuckie.

"Shut up, you pussy!" The blonde woman screamed, visibly upset as her dark brown eyebrows appeared to begin to cut into her skin as they pointed inwards towards the bridge of her nose.

What immediately stood out to Tommy was the age of the blonde woman. While the woman after Chuckie appeared to be in her early twenties, the blonde haired woman looked much more mature. The crow's feet around her angry, blue chill-colored eyes and the lines on her forehead revealed her age to be somewhere in the range of late thirties to the early forties. This amazed Tommy as this woman was in bed with Tommy, wearing nothing but her black thigh high fishnet stockings with a silicone lace and a matching black garter belt. The thing that made matters even more confusing is that neither one knew who each woman was, only that they had met each other the night before and slept with them.

In order to figure out who they were and what was going on, Tommy moved slowly towards the blonde woman, afraid that she would snap at him too, and carefully asked, "Um, excuse me, Miss, but, who are you?"

As Chuckie nodded silently in response, meaning he too wanted to know what was going on, the Blonde haired woman faced Tommy, stared him straight in the eye, and responded, "What the hell kind of question is that for your wives?"

"W...wives," Tommy replied, unsure if he had heard the blonde woman correctly.

Both the blonde woman and the Asian woman put out their left hands revealed a wedding band on each of their left ring fingers. At first sight of these rings, Tommy and Chuckie instantly became pale, Chuckie even more than usual. The two young men froze up at the thought of getting married and not even remembering the ceremony. This shock distracted Chuckie as he was no longer running away from his new wife, who now had her whole body wrapped up against his. Tommy, on the other hand, was pulled back down on the bed by his older and commanding wife. The only thing Tommy and Chuckie could do was look at each other with a look that screamed "What did we do last night?"


	2. Before The Happening

In order to understand what occurred on the friend's Vegas getaway, we must go back a week before to the Saturday after Tommy's eighteenth birthday. The economy was starting to fail, making it tough for many people to get by, especially young people who either were going to start college or graduate and enter the workforce. The presidential primaries had also just wrapped up the Tuesday of the week before with Arizona Senator Tom McCabe winning the Republican nomination and Illinois Senator Barrakah Oyama edging out New York Senator and former First Lady Wendy Rogers for the Democratic Party's nomination. However, the most important event up to this point in the lives of four young friends had just transpired over a week before. Tommy Pickles, Kimi Finster, and Phil and Lil DeVille had just graduated from High School the previous Thursday. The four friends had a huge graduation party together with many close family members from each family coming together and celebrating the four of them.

The following Wednesday, the Pickles went out to eat at _Spaghetti_ , an Italian restaurant in the neighboring town of Redlands, to celebrate Tommy officially becoming an adult. However, Tommy shared a "Meatball Mountain" with his younger brother Dil, just like when they were kids. Tommy seemed to have gotten everything he wanted out of his birthday, although, there was one thing he wanted to do now that he was an adult, but he would need a friend in order to pull it off. That's why on the Saturday after his birthday Tommy invited his long-time friend, Chuckie Finster, over to his house. The two went up to his room where they could speak in private, away from Tommy's parents, and especially nosy younger brother.

Chuckie sat down on Tommy's bed as his friend closed his bedroom door, and asked, "So, Chuck, how'd college go this past semester?"

"Finals were tough, I also had a ten-page paper to do," Chuckie responded, telling Tommy about the second semester of his first year in college.

"You must be ready to do something exiting this summer then?" Tommy asked

Chuckie thought it over, and replied, "I guess, I'm thinking of buying some yarn and knitting scarfs for the winter."

As Tommy looked surprised at his friend for suggesting he's spend his summer knitting, Chuckie simply responded, "I mean go to the beach and meet girls. Oh, I should shut up now."

Rubbing off his friend's quotes as just another one of his many quirks, Tommy sat down on his desk chair, and said, "Well, speaking of going out, I too had the idea to go somewhere, and I was wondering if you'd want to go."

"Well, where are you thinking of going, San Diego, Santa Monica?" Chuckie asked before responding to Tommy's invitation.

Tommy clenched his jaw as his friend's suggestions for being too "safe," and said "No, I was actually thinking about going to Vegas."

"You want to go to Las Vegas?!" Chuckie asked.

Tommy rolled his desk chair closer to Chuckie, and added, "Just for the weekend, and I need someone with a credit card to make the hotel reservation, and you're the only one I trust. Look, I'll pay for the rooms and the gas. Will you please do this with me?"

As usual Chuckie overthought the proposal, worrying about the tiniest things that could turn into huge debacles; however, he was always telling himself he needed to do things that made him feel uncomfortable, and so he replied, "I mean, if you want to go so bad, I guess I could go."

This was all that Tommy needed to hear from his friend, and the young man excitedly said, "Yeah, great! How's next Saturday?"

"Next Saturday works, but I have a question; don't you have to be twenty-one to enter a lot of the places in Vegas?" Chuckie responded.

"Really, you have to be twenty-one?" Tommy asked as he thought you had to only be eighteen to enter the various establishments.

Chuckie immediately replied, "Yeah, a lot of these places serve alcohol, I'm pretty sure that you have to be twenty-one."

This new information really threw a wrench in Tommy's plans. He was not going to wait three more years to go on this adventure, he wanted to go now. Tommy had been thinking of going to Vegas for months, and now he needed to come up with a way to save his plan.

He gave it some thought for a few seconds before coming up with an answer, which he told Chuckie, "Okay, here's the plan. I know someone who can get us fake ID's, I'll ask for some, just get me a photo of yourself and they'll the ones we'll use."

"Fake ID's, I don't know Tommy, can we trust this person?" Chuckie nervously asked.

In order to be completely transparent with his nervous friend, Tommy opened up to Chuckie by saying, "To be honest, trust in general is a bit of a stretch with this person, but, when it comes to ID's I'm confident it'll work out. She's been twenty-one since she's been sixteen with her ID after all."

Even though Tommy was trying to be vague about who this person was, Chuckie immediately picked up on who the mystery person was, and asked, "She? You don't mean...?"

"Yeah, I kind of gave it away with the 'she,' didn't I?" Tommy responded, alluding to the fact that Chuckie had picked up on who "she" was.

In an attempt to steer the conversation away from fake ID's and back to the trip, Tommy immediately added, "Look, it doesn't matter, it's going to work. But, if anyone asks what you're doing next week, tell them that you're going on a camping trip with me. That's what I'm going to say."

Chuckie agreed with Tommy's plan, but he still had a question for his friend, so he asked, "Alright, but now that I agreed, were you also planning on inviting the others or is it just going to be us two?"

"Well, let's keep this as a guy's trip. We're not taking Dil though, it's one thing for us to use fake ID's, we're not bringing a minor into all this," Tommy replied as he didn't want to get into any real trouble.

"I don't think that's how the law works," Chuckie added nervously, obviously still shaken up about the fact that they were going to use fake IDs.

Sensing this anxiety in his friend, Tommy screamed at his friend, "Chuckie! It's going to be fine, trust me."

Seeing that it would be better for him to not think about the fake IDs, Chuckie thought about another person who could possibly go with them, and asked, "Okay, what about Phil, maybe he'd want to go?"

"Maybe, let's call him," Tommy responded as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his next door neighbor.

Tommy put his phone on speaker so that Chuckie could hear the conversation as well, and after three rings their friend picked up the phone. When Phil answered the call he was panting excessively, as if he had just come back from a long jog or from an intense workout.

"Hey Tommy," Phil said before taking even more deep breaths.

"Hey Phil, are you okay, you sound tired?" Tommy asked, worried about his friend's heavy breathing.

"Oh, yeah, I was just getting some fresh pu... _ushups…exercise_ , yeah, exercise," Phil responded nervously, as if he had been caught doing something unflattering and was trying to cover it up.

Aware that it was not unlike Phil to act weird, Tommy accepted his excuse, and said, "Whatever, listen, I'm with Chuckie right now. We're planning on going to Vegas next Saturday and we were wondering if you'd like to go."

Phil's pants had calmed down a bit by now, and was able to respond, "Uh, geez, I'd like to go, but I've got a previously scheduled engagement."

Tommy immediately became suspicious of Phil because of the way he worded his response, and asked, "A 'previously scheduled engagement,' Phil, what's going on?"

"Well, while you guys are going to be in Vegas, I will be enjoying _Twin Peaks_ as well," responded Phil in some sort of coded message.

The two had very little time to think about Phil's response as something else had caught their attention; a woman's voice came through, and screamed, "What are you doing?! You're being too obvious!"

"Whoa, whoa, don't get mad, I could have said something more obvious like going down there and getting a taste of _The Strip_ ," Phil replied to the woman.

Even through Phil thought he was helping his case as he said those words with the call still going on, this only made the woman even more angry, causing her to scream, "Hang up the fucking phone, Phillip!"

The woman's scream was so loud that it came out of Tommy's phone like the voice of a person speaking directly into the phone's microphone; it was this clear moment of hearing the woman's voice that caused Chuckie to ask, "Is that Lil?"

Phil immediately became very nervous at Chuckie's question, and responded, "Um, I've got to go, bye."

"Don'ttellanyoneaboutouttrip!" Tommy screamed rapidly into his microphone, hoping Phil heard him right before he hung up on his end.

Once Tommy turned his phone off ant put it back in his pocket he looked over at Chuckie, who clearly as confused as he was about Phil's response, and simply said, "Well, that was weird."

Since Phil would not be accompanying them, Tommy and Chuckie came to the agreement that they would be the only ones going. The two took care of all the business they had in front of them the following weekend. Tommy was looking into getting an apartment close to UC Irvine, the school he was attending in the fall, but the rent rates were all too high for a college kid, meaning he would have to live in the dorms for the time being. They each told their parents that the two had planned to go on a camping trip by themselves, and they each responded by saying they were fine with it and didn't question their sons any further. Even though they were now both adults and could do as they pleased, they still kept their true plans a secret in order to avoid getting caught planning to use fake IDs.


	3. Guys' Trip

The following week rolled by fast like a typical summer week, but the weekend was going to be anything but ordinary. It was four o'clock when Chuckie arrived at Tommy's house with his backpack full of clean clothes. Tommy had filled his car with the Pickles family's tent, sleeping bags, and other camping equipment in order to fool everyone that they were really going camping, but of course, it was all a ruse. Chuckie threw his backpack into the back row of Tommy's car and he rode in the passenger's seat while Tommy drove. The two friends waved goodbye to Tommy's mom, Didi, as she held back tears seeing her first child leave home. Even though Tommy would be back Sunday afternoon, she saw this as a prelude of what would happen in August when her first baby bird would leave the nest and go off to college.

The drive to Las Vegas was actually quite simple as there were very few roads in the southeastern portion of California. Tommy and Chuckie took Interstate 10 from Yucaipa to the city of San Bernardino, from there they got on Interstate 215 and drove all the way through San Bernardino on that road. Once they made it out of San Bernardino, they got on Interstate 15, the road that would take them through the Mojave Desert to their final destination. For the next four hours, Tommy and Chuckie drove passed a small number of cities and towns like Barstow, Clifford, Baker, and Primm before eventually spotting glimmering buildings in the distance. It was a few minutes after 8 PM when Tommy and Chuckie finaly made it to the city of Las Vegas. The sun had barely begun to set on the desert city and the iconic lights of the metropolis had begun to glow much more prevalent. On the drive into the city, Tommy got off Interstate 15 via an exit ramp in order to get onto South Las Vegas Boulevard; this way the two friends could pass by an iconic landmark, the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

A Tommy drove up the road and turned left on West Russell Road in order to turn right onto South Las Vegas Boulevard, he gestured out to the various high-rises such as the _Viking Hotel_ , and said, "This is it, Chuckie, Las Vegas."

"Wow, we haven't been here since we took that detour to the Hoover Dam on that cross-country road trip," Chuckie replied, referring to the trip all the childhood friends took with their mothers to New York City during the Thanksgiving week of 2001.

The heavy flow of tourists flocking to the city for the weekend meant the four-mile drive to their hotel was turned into twenty minutes of sitting in traffic. However, this was not that bad as Tommy and Chuckie used the opportunity to take in the lights and massive buildings that sprung out in the middle of the desert. Tommy then turned right onto Flamingo Road, where, to their left, they saw their hotel, _Olympus_. Turing left onto the famous Las Vegas Strip was a challenge in particular because even though it was tempting to start looking all around, Tommy had to pay extra close attention as the slightest accident could cause a massive back up on one of the world's busiest roads, but he managed and made his way towards the entrance of the _Olympus_ hotel.

Once Tommy parked his car in the temporary parking spot next to the statue of the Titan Atlas holding up the Earth with a huge sign that said "Olympus," he pulled out Chuckie's fake ID from his pocket, kissed it, and whispered to it, "Come on, Angie, don't fail me now."

"When has she ever not failed us?" Chuckie sarcastically asked, complete aware that even though Tommy's cousin had been using fake IDs for years, he would not put it past Angelica to give them faulty IDs so that they would get caught.

Chuckie took the fake ID Tommy had made with a photo he had given him for this adventure and took off for the lobby. The redhead walked along a sidewalk with statues of the ancient Greek gods in the middle of small fountains on one side and the Taxi pickup area on the other until he reached a small flight of stairs that lead to a pair of large glass doors. Once he crossed the doorway, Chuckie found himself in a lavish room with marble walls, gold and alabaster columns and chandeliers, an ornate carpet depicting a Greek epic, and murals of the gods decorated the walls and ceiling. At the front of the counter where Chuckie stepped up to waited the desk clerk, a tan skinned man of average height with black hair in his mid-thirties named Robert.

Once Chuckie made it up to the counter, Robert said, "Good evening, sir, your name please."

"Charles Finster," Chuckie replied, as his credit card had been used to make the reservation.

After Robert typed Chuckie's name into his computer, he pulled up his reservation, and said, "Okay, we have you down for two premium rooms in the Alexander Tower. Is that Correct?"

"Yes, and can we get connecting rooms and with a view of the fountains?" Chuckie asked, referring the famous fountains of the _Menaggio_ hotel, which just so happened to be next to the _Olympus_.

"That's a really specific order, let me see what I can find," replied Robert.

After typing on his keyboard and scrolling through pages of hotel records, the desk clerk looked up from his computer, and told Chuckie, "You're in luck, we've got just what you want on the floor."

"That's great, thanks," Chuckie replied with a genuine smile on his face.

As Robert clicked some links on his computer, he turned to Chuckie for a final piece of information to confirm the room, and asked, "May I see your ID and the credit card you made the reservation, please?"

It was at that moment that Chuckie's face froze up and became even paler than usual, resulting in him mumbling, "I...ID?"

"Yes sir, I just need to confirm that you're at least twenty-one," Robert replied.

Chuckie's hands began to tremble in fear, but he managed to pull the credit card he used to make the nearly $1,500 reservation for Tommy out of his wallet and his fake ID out of his pocket. Once he handed them over to Robert, he quickly compared them, glancing back and forward at both cards.

Chuckie's heart began to beat much harder and he sweated much more during those five seconds, which felt like hours for him, until the desk clerk handed them back, and said, "Here you go, let me get you your reservations and your keys."

As Robert looked under his desk for the key cards and reservation documents, Chuckie began to quietly hyper-ventilate until the desk clerk got back up, pointed at the documents, and said, "Okay, you'll be staying in two Premium Rooms on the Alexander Tower, just take the elevator to your left."

"Thank you, thank you," Chuckie responded, struggling to find the appropriate words.

He eventually snapped out of his trance and made his way back outside to the temporary parking spot with the reservation documents and key cards in hand. Once he got back in the car, he handed Tommy the documents and the two headed off to the hotel's permanent parking lot. Once they stationed Tommy's car, the two made their way back to the main lobby where they boarded the elevator the Robert pointed out and took it to the thirty-sixth floor, which was really just the sixteenth floor but the _Olympus_ hotel simply added twenty to the number of floors they really had. The two friends eventually reached the thirty-sixth floor and proceeded to two rooms at the edge of the floor. Tommy took the one on the edge, giving him a full view of the strip and the fountains of the neighboring and internationally-famous _Menaggio_ hotel. The two said goodnight and retreated into their individual rooms and enjoyed the amenities that came along with such a classy room. The two got in their individual room's bath tubs, but Chuckie enjoyed it the most as he did not pay a single cent of the bill. Tommy covered all of it with the money he got for his graduation and the rest came from the money he got from his part-time job at _Boingo Burger_. The two had agreed that they would not go out that night, they would just take advantage of the amenities at the hotel.

The following morning, the two friends ordered room service for breakfast. Tommy ordered a pot of "Continental Express" coffee and two croissants for them to share and the "Build-Your-Own-Omelette" with bell peppers, pepper jack cheese, and diced turkey for himself, while Chuckie ordered the "French Connection" breakfast with scrambled eggs, hash browns, grilled ham, two buttermilk pancakes, and toast with butter and jam. It only took around twenty minutes for the hotel staff to deliver their meals to Tommy's room where the two took their mugs of coffee and trays of food to their own rooms. The two friends talked to each other through the open passageway of the door that connected their rooms as they ate their breakfast in bed, wearing nothing but the white robes courtesy of the _Olympus_ hotel.

At midday, Tommy and Chuckie made their way downstairs to the lobby of the _Olympus_ hotel and headed out onto the famous Las Vegas Strip. Even though the daylight meant that the night lights were not on, the two friends were still in total amazement at the sight of people from all over the world congregated on this one busy street. For the next three hours, Tommy and Chuckie wondered the strip, walking into the public areas of the other strip hotels and admiring the many iconic sites like the model of the Eifel Tower and Statue of Liberty. Once three o'clock came around, the two went back to the _Olympus_ hotel and decided to wander around the large property. The two then went up to their rooms, changed into their swimming trunks and headed out to the pools of the lavish Laconica Baths section. The Laconica Baths were located in the middle of the _Olympus_ hotel and really seemed to tie the separate wings together. Inside this area were a series of large pools with amazing tile patterns on the floor, reflecting through the crystal clear water. Another wondrous sight was the presence of palm trees and marble columns all around, in fact many of the columns served no purpose other than to just stand there as decorative pieces. Once inside one of the pools, the two friends got on their backs and spend the next two hours floating around the small island in the middle of the pool featuring a marble statue of the Olympian Greek God Zeus on top of a pedestal. Eventually the two friends got bored of the pool and decided to head up to their rooms and shower off.

Around half an hour later, a fresh-out-of-the-shower Tommy headed over to squeaky-clean Chuckie, and asked, "So, do you have anything else on your list you want to do?"

"Not really, and I am pooped, let's just grab some dinner and call it a night," Chuckie recommended.

Tommy laughed at Chucke's request, and explained to him, "No, there's still some more stuff we have to do in order to have the real Vegas experience. Put on your best shirt, we're heading down to the casino."

"Ca...casino, but Tommy, you have to be twenty-one to gamble," Chuckie reminded his friends.

"We have the Fake ID's, we'll just use those," Tommy said, pulling out the card from his wallet.

This immediately made Chuckie extremely nervous, and he made his reservations known, as he replied, "I know, Tommy, but getting a hotel room is different from gambling. I've seen those old movies, I know that the casino owner's take you into the back room and break your fingers if you break the rules."

Seeing as he would not get to Chuckie in this condition, Tommy pulled a plastic bag with a few pills out of his pocket, and said, "Okay, Angelica knew this would happen, so I bought these from her. She said they were 'Anxiety Relievers,' they should calm you down."

Tommy pulled on of the pills out of the bag and gave them to Chuckie, who examined it, and replied, "Tommy, I've come across many different anxiety medications over the years, but I've never seen this kind or even heard of 'Anxiety Relievers' before."

Because Chuckie was simply not moving from his stance, Tommy decided to show he valued his input on the medication, and added, "Okay, how about this, what if I take one too, will you come down with me then."

After giving it some thought and deciding it wouldn't be that scary if Tommy took one as well, Chuckie replied, "Well, I guess if you take one too, then I guess I could take one too."

"Great," Tommy replied, opening one of the bottles of water on Chuckie's counter and taking one of the pills.

Tommy passed the open bottle of water over to Chuckie and he took the pill that Tommy had given him earlier. The two them put on their best shirts and headed down to the lobby in order to maneuver through the level and find their way to the entrance of the casino. What immediately caught Tommy and Chuckie's eyes was the fact that the rotunda in front of the entrance to the casino had yellow lights that illuminated the walls and floor of the room, giving everything a golden tint. After a short walk through a hallway, the two friends made it to the casino, the main tourist attraction to the city. Tommy and Chuckie walked right into the busy gambling floor and almost got lost in the commotion, but Tommy pulled Chuckie out to the corner where there was less human traffic.

"Wow, that was confusing. So, what are you planning on playing, the slot machines, craps?" Chuckie asked.

"No, I'm in Vegas, I'm going to have the Vegas experience, Tommy replied, and then pointed his arm over to a separate room at the edge of the casino."

Chuckie read the words on top of the walkway to the room, and asked, '"Poker, do you even know how to play poker?"

"Of course I do, I learned from the master, Grandpa Lou," Tommy replied.

The two friends walked into the separate room with many poker tables spread around. The two found a table with an empty seat at the end and Tommy sat down while Chuckie stood behind him watching the action. The dealer, an older man with graying hair named Fred, asked to see both of their ID's and they handed him their Fake ID's. Fred determined that they were who the ID's belong too and let them stick around and join in. Tommy entered the game with $100 and began to play against nine other players. As the next two hours passed by, one by one the other players began to loose and leave the table, leaving only Tommy and another excellent player still competing. The other person was an elderly man, an overweight man that also had a large upper body, he had fair skin, a full head of neatly combed hair that was as white as snow accompanied with a bushy gray mustache. The elderly man also wore a white button-up shirt with sleeves he rolled up, exposing an anchor tattoo on his right arm, along with a pair of jeans and orange suspenders.

The game had now come to Tommy and the elderly man, and while the two each examined the many chips they had won throughout the game, the elderly man looked up from his winnings, and asked, "Aren't you a little young to be playing with the high-stakes crowd?"

As he felt Chuckie's grip tighten on his shoulder at the sound of the word "young," Tommy ignored Chuckie's anxiety about the moment, and replied "Not when you know how to play the game."

The elderly man gave Tommy a smirk of approval, and responded, "You're a cocky one, I'm Albert."

"Thomas," Tommy replied, using his true name in order to sound more mature and eliminate any illusion of naïveté from the competition's mind.

By this point, Albert had already committed $600, or about half of his money, into the pot for the blind, an attempt to scare Tommy due to the high amount of money on the line. For a moment, Tommy just stood there, glaring at the stack of poker chips. It wasn't until Fred signaled Tommy to make a decision that he replied with his own bet.

"I see your 600 and raise you 1,200," Tommy replied as he pushed the chips farther into the table so that Fred could collect them.

Chuckie tugged Tommy on his shoulder, and when Tommy leaned back, the redhead whispered into his friend's ear, "Tommy, that's most of your money!"

"Don't worry, I have a feeling this will all play out just fine," Tommy replied, not settling Chuckie's nerves at all.

Now that the final round of betting was complete, both Tommy and Albert looked over the five community cards and picked out which two of their hole cards they would use to make their best hand. The five cards both men had to play with were the queen of clubs, the nine of hearts, the jack of diamonds, the ace of hearts, and the ace of diamonds. After a minute or so, Tommy decided on his two cards and kept them closer to him until Albert too made a decision. The time had come to reveal their hands, but before Tommy could reveal his two cards, Albert's cell phone began to ring. Even though it might not be wise to take a call at a poker table in Vegas, once Albert realized it was his daughter calling he opened his flip phone and answered the call.

"Hey Rita, how are you doing," Albert said, leaning away from Fred as to not upset the dealer.

In order to not get in trouble, Albert tried speeding though the call in order to get back to the game, responding to his daughter, "You gave birth already...to another girl, what's her name? Lucy, that's a nice name."

"Oh, she looks like Lynn's grandmother, that's good. Listen, can I call you back soon? I'm in the middle of something," Albert replied as he tried to end the call following multiple dirty looks from Fred.

Albert's daughter didn't respond to his question, instead she told him something he was not prepared to deal with, responding, "What's that, Lincoln wants to talk to me. Can you tell him Pop-Pop will call him right back if he waits just a bit?"

Seeming as he was not changing his ways, Fred jumped into the situation and said to Albert, "Hey, either you hang up or leave the floor. I'll call security if you don't do anything."

Albert froze for a few seconds until he heard, until he heard the voice of his grandson coming through the phone, causing him to stutter, "H...hey th..there kid-o, how are you doing?"

Realizing the serious dilemma his competitor was in, Tommy decided to play a mind trick on Albert, telling him, "You know, my grandfather would put down whatever he was doing in order to bond with me. Man, he's just the ideal grandfather, someone I can really look up too."

At this very moment, Albert was so conflicted over what he was going to do, was he going to win money or talk to his grandson. As more seconds passed on, Albert only seemed to get farther away from a decision.

Ultimately, his final decision came when Fred tapped an earpod in his ears, presumably calling casino security to escort Albert out of the floor, leading Albert to stand up from the table, and pronounce, "Fine, I'm out."

Both Tommy and Chuckie were taken aback as they witnessed the former's challenger simply walk away from the game, snorting and speaking into the phone, "No, Lincoln, Pop-Pop's not crying, it's just...just that...someone's cutting onions."

Seeing as he was the last person sitting at the table, Tommy stared at the pile of poker chips in the middle of the table, and asked Fred, "Are they all mine now?"

Fred's age had caught up to him after all this time managing the poker game so much so that he replied with his head resting on his right palm, "You know what, I get paid minimum wage and I've been working two hours overtime tonight, take them, kid."

Both Tommy and Chuckie's eyes opened up as Fred moved all of the chips in the pot over to in front of Tommy. In addition to the chips he still had, Tommy now had the equivalent of $2,187 in poker chips. While he could have taken the chips to a different table and probably lose all of it, Tommy began to gather the chips in order to exchange them.

However, before he began to collect his winnings, Tommy presented the two cards he planned on playing, the nines of spades and clubs, and asked Fred, "Hey, could you show us the other guy's cards?"

Fred proceeded to flip over Albert's five cards, revealing the queen and ace of spades, meaning that if he would have hung up on his grandson, Albert would have won the game.

Realizing that he was technically not the winner, Tommy began to grab some of the chips, and ordered his friend, "Chuckie, come on, grab them, we've got to go!"

Chuckie did as his friend said and ran out of the poker room with a variety of poker chips all the while Fred simply yawned and stared at the two run away. Once they were out of the poker room, the two made their way over to the cashiers station, carefully maneuvering though the crowd of gamblers. Tommy in particular carried the bunch of chips in between his arms just like you would carry a baby, well, the chips were his _baby_.

After waiting in line and getting called up to an open spot at the cashier's station, Tommy and Chuckie handed all of the chips over to the cashier, to which Tommy then asked, "Could you please give me 1500 in hundreds, 500 in twenties, and the rest in singles, my good man."

Chuckie understood asking for the hundreds and twenties, but was confused about the rest, asking his friend, "Why the singles?"

"You'll see, it's going to be my special gift to you," Tommy replied, not answering his friend's question.

It took Chuckie a while to realize what was going, but when he saw the teller hand Tommy the money with the bundle of single dollar bills at the top, it all clicked. Things were about to get dirty.


	4. Winnings Well Spent

After winning a poker game thanks to complete chance, Tommy and Chuckie walked out of the casino at the _Olympus_ hotel with Tommy carrying his winnings in his arms. Now that they had all of this money, Tommy was ready to go forward with the true Vegas experience.

As the two friends made their way back to the ornate hotel lobby, Tommy chanted the location of their next escaped "Strip Club! Strip Club! Strip Club! Strip Club!"

"Shh, keep it down, Tommy. You're making everyone look at us," Chuckie replied, lifting his shirt from the collar in order to cover his eyes from the anxiety-inducing stares of strangers.

Tommy chuckled when he caught a glimpse of his friend, and responded, "Ah, don't worry about it Chuckie, every man, and some women, don't judge, who came to Vegas came to do just this.

The group the made it up to a marble-top counter where Tommy requested a limousine, but once the receptionist moved her attention to calling for the vehicle, Chuckie asked of Tommy about his previous statement, "What about Gay guys?"

After putting all of his winnings away in specific pockets and dedicating a bit of time to ponder the question over, Tommy replied, "Well, they'd have their own clubs, I'd think. We should ask someone who's Gay."

"Who do we know who's Gay? Has Phil ever confided in you any _personal_ secret?" Chuckie asked his friend, hoping he would spill the beans on another friend, a rather peculiar friend.

"No. And to be honest, I don't think he's Gay, but I see where you're coming from," Tommy responded, fully aware of why Chuckie would interpret Phil's seemingly inability to get a girl since Middle School as some sort of closeted Homosexuality.

Following a short pause, Tommy continued, "Perhaps we should ask Lil."

"Maybe, but we should try to catch her on a good day. Kimi told me she's been having a lot of mood swings lately. That and feeling tired all the time and having strange food cravings," Chuckie then added.

Before Tommy could respond to that suspicious list of symptoms Lil had been having lately, the receptionist looked up from her computer, and said, "Alright gentlemen, the Limo is waiting right out front."

The two of them thanked the receptionist and walked across the shiny marble floor in order to reach the exit, where low and behold a white limousine stood waiting. Standing next to the door to board the limo stood the driver, a short older woman with aging fair skin and blonde hair with a few gray hairs here and there wearing a navy blue chauffer's outfit with matching shoes and brimmed cap. At first, even Tommy was embarrassed to tell the driver where he wanted to go, but reasoned that he and Chuckie hadn't been the first guys she's had to take to a home of debauchery and fornication. Tommy and Chuckie then thanked the driver for holding the door open for them as they entered the limo, admiring the lights along the edges that illuminated everything inside.

"I'm Mary Anne, your driver. So, where to, gentlemen?" The driver asked, even though after years of working as a limo driver in Las Vegas she had a good idea of where a group of young men on vacation in her town wanted to go when they asked for a limo.

Without much hesitation, Tommy took a deep breath and proclaimed as he pointed his right index finger to the ceiling of the limo while his arm moved in a swinging motion with the finger, "Take us to a Strip Club!"

As one of the requests she had become quite accustomed too, Mary Anne followed up with a question that would help her filter out where she would take her customers, "Are you guys at least twenty-one?"

"Of course, we've got IDs and everything. Don't we, Chuckie?" Tommy replied, elbowing his friend in order for him to jump into the conversation.

Chuckie didn't like to be put on the spot like that, especially when it required him to lie; he was so conflicted that the only thing he could utter was, "Um...mmm."

Understanding the problem he had gotten his friend, Tommy lunged over in front of Chuckie, obstructing him from Mary Anne's view, and said, "Ignore him, driver, take us to your finest nude establishment."

"Alright, I'll take you guys to _Peppermint Elephant_ ," Mary Anne responded before closing the back door and making her way over to the driver's seat.

As the Limo pulled off onto the busy Las Vegas Boulevard, Tommy and Chuckie each lied down on the long cushioned benches inside the Limo. In front of the main bench was a built in ice chest full of small water bottles chilling in ice for the taking. The two friends each grabbed a bottle and chugged the liquid in as little as ten seconds, quenching their thirst after spending hours at the poker tournament. Tommy threw his empty bottle to the back of the limo while Chuckie was politer and stood it up on the end of his seat. The limo eventually took a left onto Fashion Show Drive, a less busy street and continued straight until it made another left turn in order to reach the destination.

Mary Anne pulled the limo up to the front of the strip club, a large, new, and clean grey building with a giant blue neon sign proclaiming it to be the " _Peppermint Elephant_." With their pockets stuffed with Tommy's winnings, the two friends jumped out of the limo and strolled towards the front door, only for Tommy to be called back by their driver. Before heading back to the _Olympus_ to drive obnoxious drunks around Vegas, Mary Anne gave Tommy a card with her contact info, that way when they were done partying they could call her up and she would take them back to the hotel. Tommy took the card and put it in his pocket as his mind was on something more pressing. After paying $30 each in order to enter the club, Tommy and Chuckie made their way to the mainstage, the place where all the action was.

After years of curiosity about what these places offered, they finally had a first-hand account of what went on in a strip club. The room was mainly dark with a series of standard lights grazing the brown walls covered in framed paintings of pinup girls and a couple of purple lights towards the center. There were smaller stages of about three poles scattered around the large room, most of them with a working girls dancing on one of them and men throwing their money at them. However, in the center was the mainstage where the stars of the evening would perform. There were currently two spots open in front of the mainstage, so Tommy and Chuckie decided to sit down and watch as a new dancer came onto the stage. As this brunette spun around on the poll and dragged her body across the stage floor in order to collect the number of bills the audience threw at her, all Tommy could do was smile as if he had achieved some kind of manhood success for having entered such a place. Unfortunately, Chuckie did not feel that fulfilled, and in fact felt really uncomfortable just sitting there and watching half-naked women dance for his pleasure.

After the song was over, Tommy noticed that Chuckie seemed a bit uncomfortable, and said, "Why the nervous face? I know how to fix that."

He got up from his seat as another dancer got on stage and retuned about two minutes later with two beers, and told Chuckie as he handed him one, "Here, drink this."

"But, Tommy, should we really be drinking after we took Angelica's 'anxiety relievers?'" Chuckie asked, fully aware that Tommy just wanted him to be as chill as possible.

"Just drink it, it'll do you good," Tommy responded, to which Chuckie hesitantly agreed to.

Chuckie had never been good with peer pressure, so he just did whatever Tommy did in order to make him stop, it was a flawed strategy but it served him well till this point. One beer did nothing Chuckie, he still felt completely out of place surrounded by so much lustfulness, so Tommy did the friendly thing and bought four more beers, two for each. They each drank their beers but Chuckie still didn't feel right, and for about half an hour or so, Tommy kept going to the bar and back with even more beers. After a while, Chuckie was so comfortable he was whistling at every girl who got on stage, Tommy was also relieved of any remaining stress. The two left the mainstage and headed for a more private section where the girls would approach customers in order to swindle them out of their money. Both Tommy and Chuckie were well aware of this, but they very much enjoyed the interest and affection the girls faked when they were mingling with clients. Several girls would approach both Tommy and Chuckie for a private lap dance for $20 and they took up the offer every time. They had gone through three lap dances, and with alcohol-induced smiles on their faces they were ready for another round with whatever girls offered to, but that all changed when they caught a glimpse at the two girls that would change their vacation.

Near the back wall stood two strippers talking to each other, Amber and Kitty. Tommy was immediately drawn to Amber, a tall blonde who, even though was much older, mesmerized him with her serious mean stare that could silence any man who misstepped. On the other hand, Kitty, a young Asian woman much closer in age to Tommy and Chuckie, carried herself in a much more friendly manner, smiling and waving at every man who passed by, and it was this bubbly personality that drew Chuckie towards her. Sensing that he and his friend had a thing for the two girls standing over there, Tommy picked Chuckie up from his chair and dragged him over to the girls where he introduced them.

"Hey there, I'm Tommy, this is Chuckie. So, ladies, how about a dance?" Tommy asked, trying to talk as smooth as possible.

Kitty was about to immediately agree to the proposition, but Amber interjected, replying, "We only do private rooms, that is if you have the money."

Tommy chuckled at Amber's proposition, little did she know he had just come from winning a poker game, to which he replied, "You know what, we do have some money to spare, how much?"

"One hundred per hour, each," Amber responded, egging this kid on.

"Deal," Tommy said, then asked as he put his arm around the older blonde, "So, what's your name, sweetheart?"

"It's Amber," she replied as she took her customer to the private room.

"I'm Kitty," the other added as she put her arm around Chuckie and took him to the private room as well.

"He he, Kitty," Chuckie let out, to which his dancer so joyfully giggled in response.

It was at this point that a third girl, a brunette with wavy hair wearing a sort of soccer jersey-lingerie costume, approached the group, saying, "Hey there, I'm Lexie, room for one more?"

"Sorry, but, we've kind of got our hands full as it is," Tommy responded gently.

"Okay, well, if you change your mind, just come find me," Lexie replied, stroking both Tommy and Chuckie's cheeks as she strolled away in a manner that put her rear assets to good use for any man looking from behind her.

As Amber and Kitty continued on their walk to the private room, Tommy turned to Chuckie, and whispered, "Oh, if Phil had come, he'd have been all over her, I just know it."

The two friends did not know if Amber, Kitty, Lexie, or any name any girl gave in here were in fact their real names, all they could focus on was their private dance. Once they were in the private room, Tommy and Chuckie each took a seat on the large cushioned bench that lined the wall from where they admired the faux luxury products that decorated the room. Amber requested their payment before anything began, so Tommy gave each girl one hundred dollars from his winning in order to initiate the dances. However, before they danced, Amber and Kitty served themselves and their customers a glass of Champagne in order to celebrate their business. At first, the girls just talked to the guys and acted very physical, this way they could make money without having to dance so much, and to their advantage, the guys were so drunk they did not care. After a while, Amber and Kitty decided to dance for their customers, Amber for Tommy and Kitty for Chuckie. This continued until the hour ended, to which Tommy replied by handing them another hundred dollars each, the private party was going to continue. This pattern continued on for a few more hours, as the girls danced away, the guys got even drunker on the many bottles of Champagne they drank that they began to dance with the girls. Tommy even managed to spray a bottle on the two dancers, and they were willing to take it, after all, it's not every day a stripper gets to service a high roller.

After hours of partying and hundreds of dollars spent on the strippers, Tommy and Chuckie exited the strip club with smiles on their faces and almost certainly a moist sensation inside their pants. Not just were the two drunker than ever before, the alcohol they consumed in in the club did not mix well with the "anxiety relievers" Angelica had sold Tommy. Severely impaired, the two friends leaned on each other as they stumbled their way out of the _Peppermint Elephant_ and into the parking lot. They walked all the way around the building, looking for their cars, until they realized that they had gotten to the club via limo. The two remembered that Mary Anne had given them a business card with her number in order to call her after they were done with their filth-fest. Chuckie then began to search his pockets for the card, but Tommy was fixated on the two women leaving the club from the back door. Low and behold, the two women they were partying with, Amber and Kitty, were being escorted to their cars by the fit bouncer. With a few yards between them, Tommy was also able to spot a man in a black hoodie sweater run up behind the bouncer and knock him out after smacking his head with the butt of his pistol.

Kitty began to panic, but the black hooded figure grabbed Amber's left arm with his left hand and covered her mouth with his right hand. It turned out that the hooded figure was Amber's one-sided ex-boyfriend, Dr. Andy Harland. As Amber cried through her captor's grip on her face and Kitty just stood there in shock, Harland explained that he had shot his kids and his loyal wife who stood by him all throughout medical school in order to be with Amber. The doctor also said that he knew the shots he fired were not fatal and that they had to leave the country immediately, exclaiming that he had purchased two plane tickets to Puerto Clara, San Lorenzo, where he wished the two of them could live out the rest of their days. As would be expected, Amber was in complete shock and rejected Harland's proposal. Seeing as the doctor was not taking the rejection quite well, bending down into fetal positon while still standing on both feet, mumbling about how he had shot his family for nothing, Tommy feared for Amber and Kitty's lives. Tommy then grabbed Chuckie and told him that they needed to wrestle the gun out of the hooded man's hand, and the only way to do that was to jump him. While Chuckie would never have agreed to this under any normal circumstances, an inebriated Chuckie was much easier for Tommy to convince.

Now that Dr. Harland realized how much trouble Amber had gotten him into, he reasoned that he had to shoot her now in order to make up for what he had done to his family, but before he could fire another bullet, Tommy jumped on him from behind, exclaiming the only pop-culture reference his intoxicated mind could come up with, "Reptar smash!"

Chuckie also jumped in the fight, wrestling the gun out of Harland's hands while he was busy with Tommy, and waving it in the air after he retrieved it, screaming, "I got it, Tommy!"

"Hit him where it hurts!" Tommy yelled in response.

With no idea where Tommy was referring to, Chuckie swung the pistol towards Harland's crotch, sending him to his knees.

As Harland whimpered on the floor, Tommy observed the beaten doctor, and said to his friend, "I was actually thinking about his face, but, yeah, that works."

After collecting herself following the attack, Amber focused on her savior and realized it was her customer from just a few minutes ago, responding, "Hey, you're the kid from the club. I'm impressed."

"Ah, it was nothing, Chuckie and I once faced off against a robot when we were toddlers," Tommy replied, an accomplishment that Amber was pretty sure her savior had just made up in a drunken fever dream.

"You're my hero, Chuckie," Kitty uttered as she wrapped her arms around Chuckie's torso.

All it took was a single touch from Kitty in order for Chuckie's pants to become even more moist and cause him to regress to the awkward, nasal voice of his youth when he responded, "Oh, no, not again."

While Tommy and Amber looked down at Chuckie as he tried to dry his shame away with his hand, Kitty just kept looking at him with a tender look. It looked like it would be all fun and games at first, until, from the corner of their eyes, they spotted Dr. Harland picking himself up from the ground and jumping Chuckie. Harland was able to wrestle the gun away from Chuckie, but the redhead was still able to break away from his grasp by wiping his body-fluid-covered palms over his captors face.

Chuckie was able to run back to Tommy while Harland spit the contents of Chuckie's body that made its way into his mouth multiple times, and screamed, "Agh, tastes like rotten potatoes!"

A busy Dr. Harland, occupied by trying to get another man's seed out of his mouth, gave the four victims of his attack a chance to run away, heading over to Amber's gray 2008 _Mazda6_ where they could have a chance of escaping. Amber got in the driver's seat with Tommy riding in the passenger's seat and Chuckie and Kitty sitting in the back row and the four of them spat out of the _Peppermint Elephant_ 's parking lot. After driving around the strip club and getting onto South Highland Drive, it looked like they had escaped the reach of the mad doctor. Tommy lowered the passenger side window in order to get some fresh air, but before he could completely stick his head out the window he heard a gunshot go off, only for the bullet to hit the side view mirror on the passenger side. Amber tried to outrun her once most loyal customer, but as soon as she turned onto West Desert Inn Road, Harland began to hit Amber's car in order for it to spin out of control.

"Ah, come on, don't bust my bumper," Amber said as she tried to keep her car on the road.

"That's what she said," an inebriated Tommy said, smiling at Amber, trying to impress her with his comedic wit.

After getting a disappointed stair from Amber, Tommy put his head down, and replied, "I'm sorry."

Once Amber passed another Las Vegas attraction of sinfulness, the _Lust Kiosk_ , the blonde stripper panicked, and screamed, "I can't lose him!"

"What if you drive straight through that building?" Kitty suggested, pointing towards a tall gold and white tower.

"Are you crazy, we'll never make it," Amber replied, immediately shutting Kitty down.

"We will, and besides the owner's an ass. He hired me for a party and made me pee on his guest's bed and he still tried to stiff me," Kitty said, giving Amber a reason to crash through the building as nothing made her even more mad than a customer trying to weasel their way out of having to pay for something _extra_.

"Alright, let's go for it," Amber said as she hit the gas pedal and made a sharp left turn towards the lobby of the Thump International Hotel Las Vegas.

While the main tower was thin and tall and covered with gold-colored windows and the name "Thump" written on the top in the exact same color behind a white cap that covered the tower, a design that mirrored many other Thump building, the base was a bit different. The base was much wider and only a third of the gold was present, with a white porch roof that featured "Thump International" written right on the front. Inside the lobby was more of the same-old tacky gold-painted room where people checked in. One of the hotel's most recent guests was a Russian businessman, who made his money in ways he would prefer not to talk about in front of his western acquaintances, who had rented some rooms for a party he was throwing in Las Vegas. Accompanying the businessman through the lobby were the two oldest children of the owner, Ron Jr. and Yana Thump, attempting to make a deal to save their father from going under, again.

Placing his hand on the businessman's right shoulder, the eldest son with neck-long black hair combed all the way back with hair gel turned over to face his client, and asked "So, Mr. Murzin, now that we've prepared this fun night for you here in Vegas, how about you offer the Thump Organization another loan."

"I'll think about it," Murzin replied, playing around with Ron Jr. as it was already predestined for him to support the Thump business in any way possible, after all, you can't forget to feed your pet.

In order to seal the deal, the eldest daughter signaled the staff to bring a cart with a three story cake covered in white frosting and a gold icing trim, and said to her honored customer, "And, while you think about it, let us show you the cake that Ron and I had made for your party guests."

Before Mr. Murzin could admire the cake, everyone was thrown back at the sight of a car crashing through the lobby and causing so much damage. The car swerved so much that it took a while for it to make its way out of the lobby by crashing through the window at the end of the room, but not without crashing into the cart carrying the cake first. The impact sent the pastry flying into the air and then crashing down to the ground, hitting Ron Jr., Yana, and Mr. Murzin, smothering them in bread, buttercream filling, and frosting.

"Agh, it's in my shoes!" The blonde Yana screamed in a high-pitched voice the moment the frosting got in between her toes.

"Ah, dad is so totally gonna blame me for this," Ron Jr. added, fully aware that his father does not appreciate it when his namesake fails him.

Ron Jr. tried to pick Mr. Murzin off of the floor in order to save what little of the relationship still stood, but before he could even get the businessman a foot off the ground, another car blasted into the lobby. The noise startled Ron Jr., making him loose his concentration and letting Mr. Murzin's hand slip out of his frosting covered one, sending the businessman back onto the floor. All Ron Jr. could do was look at Mr. Murzin's angry stare as the second car rushed away from the scene as well.


	5. Stays In Vegas

The crash through the Thump International Hotel did not help in the getaway as the impact had surely damaged Amber's car, however, the crash also damaged Harland's car, so, in a way it did help them. Amber hit the gas pedal in an attempt to get away from the crime scene, but the more she tried to accelerate the vehicle, the more it began to fail. With the sound of police sirens in the background rushing towards the Thump International Hotel, Amber tried to give her car a bit more gas, a mistake that overshot the engine. With smoke coming out of the front, Amber's view was obstructed, making it harder to drive. That and the fact that it was nighttime and all of the alcohol she had ingested while partying with Kitty, Tommy, and Chuckie did not make for ideal driving conditions. This loss of visibility and auto malfunction sent the car off the road and onto a dry empty field next to the Thump International Hotel.

With Amber's car taking its last breath in the empty field and Harland spotting the disabled vehicle, the only thing the four escapees could do was get out of the car and run away. The second Harland switched lanes in an attempt to get onto the empty field, all four people got out of Amber's car and scattered like Cockroaches when someone turns on a light in a dark room. Tommy, Chuckie, Amber, and Kitty were almost to back to the South Las Vegas Boulevard crosswalk by the time Harland got to the broken car, and when it looked like all was lost, a miracle happened. Immediately as Harland got out of his car to run after the four of them, two police cars pulled up to the scene and pointed their guns at Harland. The doctor panicked and threw himself to the ground in defeat, and when two police officers ran over to him and handcuffed him for the crime of damaging private property, all he could do was scream at the officers to look towards the street.

"Look, look, they're heading east!" Dr. Harland yelled, confusing the officers as they were facing the busiest street in the entire city at a peak hour of human traffic.

Once the four of them were on the opposite side of the street, outside the shops of the twin _Gwynn Las Vegas_ and _Gwynn Encore_ hotels, all Tommy could do was huddle the group together while tens of people passed them on the busy street, and ordered, "Come on we have to get out of here!"

Not so overtaken by the rush of outrunning a bloodthirsty stalker, Amber grabbed onto Tommy's shoulders, and replied, "We've blended into the crowd, what's the rush?"

"It won't be long until the cops run your plates and find out you're on the loose," Chuckie slurred out at Amber in a delirious daze.

All Amber could do was chuckle at such a fear, and respond, "Who do you think the car is registered under? Hell, who do you think payed for the car?"

A confused Tommy and Chuckie just stared at Amber, unsure of what she was talking about, until she nodded her head towards the empty field. It then became obvious, Harland was the one who had bought her the car and registered it under his name. After all, he would do anything for his favorite stripper, even murder his family to be with her.

With their pursuer in police custody behind them, the four escapees could finally relax, and what better way to let the muscles take a break than by grabbing a drink. Inside of the hotel that towered them, the _Gwynn Las Vegas_ , was located the _Tower Suite Bar_ , a high end establishment that Amber had drank at following a private show in a bedroom at the famous Vegas Hotel. The four victorious friends marched through the lobby mostly-inebriated and headed toward the ritzy bar where Amber greeted the greying, balding, and ageing bartender, Jerry, and asked for four shots of Tequila. Jerry didn't even care to ask Tommy and Chuckie for their IDs and it was for the better since they were too shaken up to even find their fake IDs. The four each took their shots of Tequila, only for Amber to ask for another round, and later proceeded to mix it up with other hard liquors. The two pairs stayed at the bar celebrating their escape from both a deranged attempted-killer and the law, the total contrast from the wealthy patrons attempting to enjoy a night out on the town and the lonely, depressed saps who lost all of their money in the casino. For the rest of their time there, the two groups opened up to their equivalent from the other group, forming bonds that typically formed among those who had been friends for years. Chuckie rested his body on Kitty, sobbing about how he was sure he would dye girlfriendless and alone, yet his stripper was there to comfort him. Tommy on the other hand, chatted confidently with Amber, who, even though she was over a decade and a half his senior, found his dreams of pursuing his dream in filmmaking fascinating as she too had dreams of being in the movies in her youth, only for life to turn out different than she expected.

It was probably the liquor talking, but the more she was around Tommy, the more Amber desired him more; he was no longer just another disgusting customer, but a real person who she had gotten to know deeply. With the two of them so drunk and loose, Amber proceeded to make the first move and jumped onto Tommy's lap and smooched his lips. At first, Tommy was taken aback, but before Amber could begin to rethink her decision, Tommy reciprocated by throwing himself into the moment and made out with her. The two couples proceeded with their own trajectory, Kitty comforted a depressed Chuckie while Tommy and Amber exchanged saliva and grabbed each other's bodies.

By the time the bar had closed at 2 AM, the guys were barely standing, the girls had more experience with alcohol and could handle its effects much better. It was up to Amber and Kitty to carry Tommy and Chuckie out of the G _wynn_ and back to the _Olympus_ , but the two friends were still conscious enough that they would often scream out things they saw on the strip after hours. While the girls, who were themselves a bit buzzed, ignored all of the _Cirque du Extravaganza_ ads on the sides of hotels and shady personas roaming the strip this late at night the boys pointed towards, that was not the case when they arrived to a bright, light-covered buildings with hearts on it. _Swift Nuptials_ was one of those quick wedding chapels that married whoever walked in, and that was exactly where Tommy and Chuckie wanted to go, after all, it is every young man's dream to marry a stripper. At first, Amber and Kitty were hesitant to even indulge the boy's dreams, but then the alcohol kicked into them and they began to examine their life choices. Apart from the stigmas that come with being a stripper, one of the worst things is that it is very hard to find a partner. There is surely no shortage of guys who would want to date either of them, but there are only so few of them who are not down-right creeps and can also keep them entertained, and Tommy and Chuckie seemed to fit that part.

Amber and Kitty decided to grant the boys wishes and walked towards the doors of _Swift Nuptials_ , receiving the cheers of Tommy and Chuckie in the process. Inside was the minister who would perform the ceremony, Jay, a blond man in his thirties with bags under his eyes after having to stay up all night and standby just in case any suckers wanted to get marred at a time like this. Jay didn't seem to care that Amber and Kitty were carrying an obviously inebriated Tommy and Chuckie into the chapel, clearly a sign that they could not give consent, but he didn't seem to care. He pulled out the paperwork for Amber and Kitty to fill out, which they did by writing down the information from the real IDs in their prospective husband's wallets. After submitting the paperwork, Jay escorted the couples to the back of the facility where Amber and Kitty began to put loose ties around Tommy and Chuckie's necks and tuxedo jackets over their bodies, only to leave them semi-conscious on a bench as they made their way to a back room in order to put on some rental wedding dresses.

In the chapel hall, Jay set "Here Comes the Bride" on the audio system as Amber carrying Tommy and Kitty carrying Chuckie walked down the halls of the chapel, with Omar, another tired-looking individual who did not care to look into the state of the grooms, acting as a witness. Once the four reached the front of the chapel, Jay went on to give the traditional vows that a wedding entails, and surprisingly Tommy and Chuckie were still conscious enough to say "I do" when asked if they would uphold the stated vows. The girls had a much easier time responding to the vows at they could still remember what was going on.

"By the powers vested in me by the State of Nevada, I pronounce you Husband and Wife. You may now kiss the bride," Jay unenthusiastically spat out right before Tommy jumped to kiss Amber and Kitty jumped out to kiss Chuckie.

After waking Omar from his short slumber on one of the pews in order to sign off on the marriage certificate, Amber and Kitty carried their newly christened husbands out of the _Swift Nuptials_ chapel and took them back to their rooms at the _Olympus_ hotel, after all, they still had to consummate the marriage. Apart from it being Chuckie's first time, the events that transpired in Tommy and Chuckie's bedrooms were exactly what was supposed to be expected, even if both of them have no memory about what happened.

A few hours into the future, after Tommy and Chuckie became conscious again, Amber and Kitty had to explain to the pair about what had transpired the night before. While both friends felt a sense of pride having done what most guys could only dream of, they knew they were both too young for the married life, not to mention they had not entirely consented to the marriage. They each sat down with their wives and explained that they could not go along, after all they were just college students. Kitty told Chuckie that she was also just a college student, she was stripping in order to earn money to pay for her veterinarian education. Amber had no college stories, she never attended a university, and even if she ever wished to, her "college days" would have been nearly two decades ago and she knew she would feel out of place. Gymnastics was her only talent as a kid, but when she couldn't turn that into a career as an adult, she dedicated her life to the only way she could make money with her talents. Amber and Kitty agreed to annul the marriages, sending Chuckie rushing out the door to collect the necessarily documents to do so. Luckily for him, with all of the ill-thought-out marriages that occur in Las Vegas, finding someone who would help undo the union was no difficulty.

With Chuckie out of the picture, Tommy was left facing the wives, and with nothing else to say, all he could sum up was, "Do you guys wanna get breakfast?"

Chuckie returned a half hour later with a folder of two packets of documents for the couples to sign off on in order to annul the marriage, all the while Tommy was packing up all of his belongings. This experience had hampered the guys' trip and he just wanted to cut the vacation short and go back home, something Chuckie would gladly agree to. Chuckie handed the packets of documents over to Amber and Kitty and told them where they had to sign, initial, and date in order to finish the annulment process, but before Tommy and Chuckie could sign off on their side room service knocked, announcing they had arrived with breakfast. Amber handed the packet over to Tommy, who placed it next to his backpack and Kitty to Chuckie who placed it inside the filing manila folder in order to finish up later. The couples sat down for their first and last meal, a simple breakfast of orange juice, eggs, bacon, and pancakes with a couple of syrup packets in the corner along with the small butter dish. No one spoke for the next ten minutes as they all just wanted to leave this place, sort of embarrassed of what had transpired. Once the meal was over, Amber and Kitty stood up and shook the hands of their soon-to-be former husbands, wishing them farewell with the rest of their lives as they were pretty sure they would never see them again, and walked out the front door.

Tommy and Chuckie began to prepare to leave, Chuckie signed off on his parts of the documents in order to annul his marriage with Kitty, whereas Tommy was too busy stuffing all of his belongings and supplies into his backpack in order to be able to leave as soon as possible. While he was halfway done picking up his stuff, he heard Chuckie saying he could not find his bottle of fluid to clean his glasses, Tommy then sprinted over his fired and proceeded to help him, eventually locating the bottle behind the night stand five minutes later. Tommy then helped Chuckie gather his belongings before returning to his bed and gathering his. With all of his stuff packed up, Tommy headed over to Chuckie, who had also finished gathering his things, and the two proceeded to make their way down to the lobby where Robert checked them out of the _Olympus_. Tommy gave Chuckie the keys to his car and asked him to drive to wherever he needed to go, but in reality he was just too hungover in order to drive. After taking a quick detour to the Clark County Family Court a mile or two northeast of their hotel in order to drop off the folder with the annulment requests, Chuckie headed for Interstate 15 and began heading south, literally putting Las Vegas behind them.

The two friends didn't really speak for the rest of the trip, especially considering that there was nothing to talk about other than the scorching desert they were driving through or what had just occurred. After passing the Onion capital of the West, Clifford, California, Chuckie pointed out that he was a bit thirsty, luckily Tommy had a water bottle in his backpack for such an occasion. He reached over to the back row and brought up his old senior year backpack up to the passenger seat where he opened it up and began to search for the plastic bottle. In his rummage through the piles of carelessly stored possession, Tommy spotted a sheet of paper in the mix. Curious as to what it was, Tommy pulled on the paper only to be horrified at what he had discovered, the unsigned and un-submitted application for the annulment of his marriage with Amber.

Chuckie turned his head from the road in order to see what Tommy had pulled out, and shocked at what he was looking at, screamed "Wha...tha…that's that doing here? Tommy, you didn't turn it in?"

With the entire story Amber and Kitty had told him and Chuckie flashing before his eyes, Tommy calmly folded the documents back into his backpack, put his back in the back row of his car, and said to Chuckie in the calmest voice he could fathom, "Just keep driving home, don't turn back, don't look back."

With less than two hours until they reached Yucaipa, the lifelong friends continued on their journey home, putting the events of the weekend in the rear-view mirror.


End file.
